Our People

Professor Tom Lennon is the Department Chair of the Emergency Management and Homeland Security Department at Mass Maritime. He joined the faculty in 2010 after serving on active duty with the U. S. Navy and Coast Guard for 25 years. His areas of emphasis include international relief and maritime security. Professor Lennon has developed several international education programs and exchanges for Mass Maritime including programs in Haiti, Guatemala, and Denmark.

Professor Lennon’s military assignments included positions supporting Coast Guard and Department of Defense operations and missions worldwide including two deployments to the Middle East. Professor Lennon also held faculty positions and/or senior leadership positions at the United States Coast Guard Academy, at the Naval Justice School, and with the Defense Institute of International Legal Studies. He also served as adjunct faculty at the Naval War College, and has lectured at institutions and at conferences throughout the world including multiple locations in South America, Africa, Europe, and

• Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Loyola University, New Orleans
• Master of Science and Ph.D. in Emergency Management from North Dakota State University
• Dr. Samantha Montano is currently an assistant professor of Emergency Management at the Academy. Montano does research on a variety of topics related to emergency management including disaster volunteerism, the role of the nonprofit sector in disaster, the relationship between emergency management and climate change, and the intersection of gender and disasters. In addition to research, she does science communication work and emergency management policy advocacy. 
• Current courses: Introduction to Emergency Management and Consequence Management

• Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Bridgewater State University
• Master of Arts in Political Science from University of Massachusetts, Amherst
• Ph.D. in Political Science from University of Connecticut
• Dr. Valla joined Massachusetts Maritime Academy's Emergency Management Department in 2016 after completing a career with the FBI as an intelligence analyst. During his tenure with the FBI, Dr. Valla provided intelligence analysis on most of the major terrorism investigations conducted by the FBI's Boston Field Office which included the 9/11 attacks and the Boston Marathon Bombing. Dr. Valla also served as a military intelligence officer with the U.S. Army Reserve and retired as a Major in 2004. His final assignment before retiring was as an instructor at the Joint Military Intelligence College - now the National Intelligence University. While there, he taught graduate courses in intelligence analysis, terrorism, and analytic methodology, as well as other national security topics.
• When not teaching, Dr. Valla enjoys running, hiking, working out, white-water rafting, and foreign language study. He is an avid science fiction fan. A lifelong resident of Massachusetts, he grew up in Kingston and now resides in Taunton. 

A baptized non-denominational Christian

Bachelor of Science in Electronic Engineering from Fudan University, Shanghai, China

Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in Applied Disaster and Emergency Studies from Brandon University, Brandon, Manitoba, Canada

Master of Science in Disaster Science and Management from University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware

Ph.D. in Civil Engineering with direction of Societal Risk Management from University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana, Illinois

Postdoc at Jackson State University, Jackson, Mississippi; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and Chapman University, Orange, California

Dr. Wang is currently serving as an Assistant Professor of Emergency Management at the Academy. His research topics include social vulnerability, hazard modeling, risk assessment, loss prediction, equivalency of hazard intensity, nowcasting of weather events, and media coverage of disasters. His methodological tools involve data science, machine learning, geographic information science, remote sensing, and qualitative approaches. Dr. Wang has been working on earthquake, flood, heavy rainfall, lightning, tropical cyclone, wildfire, and extraterrestrial hazard; as well as disaster risks within a multi-hazard context.